OJ gets freedom after nine years
OJ Simpson smiles at his parole hearing at a jail in Nevada. The 70-year-old star has been granted parole after almost nine years in prison for armed robbery. He will be free in October.
OJ SIMPSON was granted parole yesterday and will be released in October following an emotional hearing that centred on a botched armed robbery in a Las Vegas hotel room that sent him to prison for nine years.
A four-member Nevada parole board voted to release 70-year-old former American football star, who was acquitted in a sensational double-murder trial that gripped America two decades ago.
Simpson participated by live video feed from Lovelock Correctional Centre, about 160km from the parole board’s office in Carson City, in the hearing that included testimony from his daughter and one of the robbery victims. He bowed his head and appeared to be in tears as the board voted unanimously to grant parole. He then stood and clasped his hands as he thanked them repeatedly.
“I’ve done my time, I’ve done it as well and respectfully as anyone can,” Simpson said during his testimony. “None of this would have happened if I’d had better judgment.”
Among reasons the board gave for its decision was that Simpson had complied with prison rules during his incarceration, had no prior criminal convictions and posed a minimal safety risk.
Simpson said he was ready for life outside prison, to spend time with his children and friends and could handle the public attention he would get.
“I’m not a guy that has conflicts in the street, I don’t expect to have any when I leave here,” he said.
The board stressed it did not take into consideration the notoriety still surrounding Simpson’s acquittal for charges he murdered his wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman, and a civil court decision that found him liable for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5m in damages.
Simpson, whose on-field nickname was ‘The Juice’, was an ideal candidate for parole, based on his conduct in prison and other typical factors, according to legal experts.